Fire escape



Oct. 17, 1950 J. P. CHODACKI El'AL FIRE ESCAPE Filed May 26, 1947 Q INVENTORS.

Joseph P. Chodacki y John Kaminski low er himself or herself to the Patented Oct. 17, 19 50 The purpose ofjbur invention Qis to provide a device by means of which a-person,.in, an emergency, may'lower himself orlherselfsafely from an elevated locationin a; tructure such as a building, when normalavenues of descent, such as vstairways or elevators have been cut off by reason of .fireor possiblylsome othercause.

. Our purposeis to :jproyid'e a'gdeviceof simple construction inexpensive :ifnf,cost,,andiicompactl in bulk so thatit maybe 'placed' inobtrusively in a room, such as hotel com, in 'clo se'proximity to an outside window Another, and more specific purpose of our improvement is to'provide a; device of this kind inwhi the a o s e at whic a pe s m y I qund, will not be appreciably affected by the variable factor of weight of the iresp entfper'sonai -I'n other words, the purpose of our improvement is to provide a device including means to pre. t undue accel-.

eration of the descent of a 'perso hisor 'w t 1 4:.

We shall now"describe our with'ref'erence to the accompanying drawings, in which,;

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of'our device including its outer casing, which is broken OH in part for better illustration of the elements therein;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of our device;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is also a sectional view on line 3-3 but shows pertinent elements of the device in different operative positions; 7

Fig. is a sectional view on line 5-5 of Fig. 2. Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views. 1

The device, in the main, comprises a casin irrespective of iii, a reel I I, mounted within the casing, a cable l2 wound upon the reel and means to retard the unreeling of the cable, which means are the main novel feature of our invention.

The casing may be made in any suitable form. As shown in Fig. 1 it is substantially rectangular and is provided with a cover l3. The end walls strips of resilient material such as steel or rubber, and are inserted at one end into radial slots PATENT OFFICE Chodacki and J Kammski netroi i q I V Application Maize, 1947, Serial No. 750,588 1 zfci i 'sfi (cres -151) 2] in said hubs, the flat surfaces of the strips being disposed at right angle to the plane ofthe, The flexibility of the strips must be. such that normally said strips maintain their; radial positions, but on encountering an obstacle,

flanges.

as will be presently described, will bend out'of the way of said obstacle on application of suf flcient driving force. At this point we wish to state that strips made of rubberhave provedf so as to prevent the withdrawal 10f said strips radially. v

To secure the strips against lateral displacement a circular plate 22 is 'aflixed over thel'outer surface ,of each hub, in axialflrelation"thereto,

by;means.ofscrews 23.

' Disposed within the casing), around the reel, in a spaced relation thereto, and parallel to axle [6, are four tubular members 24. These members extend from one end of the casing to the other, and being supported by the end walls thereof, are close enough to the reel to be in the path of strips 20.

The cable mentioned above, is wound up upon reel H, the outer end of said cable passing outwardly of the casing through an aperture 25, and is equipped with a suitable belt 26 or a suitable harness which the person about to utilize the device, is to secure upon his or her body.

As the total weight of the device is small as compared with the weight of an average person, the device as a whole, must be attached to some fixed heavy object, such as a radiator, or to some structural part of the respective room, such as a door or a wall. To facilitate this, the casing carries a metal eye 21 for application of a chain 1 or a cable 28, which is shown in fragment. A crank 30 fitting over an angular end 29 of axle l6 serves as a means of reeling up the cable once it has been unwound.

has stepped off or jumped 01f into space from the elevation where the device is located. Im-

3 mediately, under the weight of the person, and under the pull of that weight upon the cable, the reel will be set into a rotary motion.

With the rotation of the reel, strips 20, carried by hubs l9, will encounter tubular members, or impact bars 24. As the encounter is at first limited to the mid-portion of each strip and as the strips are flexible the upper portion of each strip extending radiall beyond the bar will, by the' momentum of the motion, bend over said bar in an enwrapping motion as shown in Fig. 3. As the rotation of the reel is continued, the strips will be flexed rearwardly as shown in Fig, 4, but will continue bearing frictionally in a. wiping motion against the bars until the rotaryprogression of the reel will have carried the respective strips out of engagement therewith. Immediately the strips will straighten out only to encounter the respectively next impact bars where the above" described flexing of the strips will be repeated.

Under ordinary circumstances, without the use of my retarding means, the reel would tend to rotate faster with increase of weight upon the cable. The use of my strips, prevents this eventuality, for the higher the initial speed of the reel before the first encounter of the strips with the impact bars, the higher would be the force of the momentum in wrapping the upper portions of the strips over said impact bars, so that, within certain limits, the action of the strips provides automatic means of keeping the speed of the reel within bounds of safe unreeling.

After having described our device, and the use thereof, what We wish to claim is as follows:

1. In a fire escape including a cable wound 111 4 on a reel and having a free end adapted for application of a load, means to retard the rotation of the reel under said load, the means including a hub axially extending from one end of the reel and structurally connected thereto, a plurality of flexible strip extending radially from the hub, a pluralit of impact bars disposed around the reel in parallel relation thereto and, to each other, and extending transversely in the path of the strips said strips extending normally Well beyond the respective bars, the outer end portions of the respective strips being adapted to wrap themselves around the bars upon an impact therewith during the rotation of the reel, but being adapted to be pulled out of engagement with said bars on continuation of the rotation of the reel.

2;. As a means of retarding the rotation of a reel under a pull of a cable wound thereon, in combination, a hub of the reel extending endwise therefrom, a plurality of. flexible strips radially mounted Within the hub member and extending beyond the outer limit of the reel, and a plurality of impact bars disposed around the reel parallel to its axis and in the path of the strips during the rotation of the, reel, the strips being flexible enough to have their outer ends wrap themselves over the bar in the" direction of rotation of the reel, on impact with the bars, and being capable of being flexed back out oi engagement with the bars on continuation of rotation of the reel.

J OSEPI-I' P. :CHODACKI. JOHN KAMINSKI;

REFERENCES orrnn The following. references are oi record in thefile of this patent;

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

